Frederick Douglass & Herman Melville

by Levine, Robert S.; Otter, Samuel

• ISBN13: 9780807831847
• ISBN10: 0807831840
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-03-10
• Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Pr

Summary

Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) and Herman Melville (1819-1891) addressed in their writings a range of issues that continue to resonate in American culture: the reach and limits of democracy; the nature of freedom; the roles of race, gender, and sexuality; and the place of the United States in the world. Yet they are rarely discussed together, perhaps because of their differences in race and social position. Douglass escaped from slavery and tied his well-received nonfiction writing to political activism, becoming a figure of international prominence. Melville was the grandson of Revolutionary War heroes and addressed urgent issues through fiction and poetry, laboring in increasing obscurity.In eighteen original essays, the contributors to this collection explore the convergences and divergences of these two extraordinary literary lives. Developing new perspectives on literature, biography, race, gender, and politics, this volume ultimately raises questions that help rewrite the color line in nineteenth-century studies.Contributors: Elizabeth Barnes, College of William and Mary Hester Blum, The Pennsylvania State University Russ Castronovo, University of Wisconsin-Madison John Ernest, West Virginia University William Gleason, Princeton University Gregory Jay, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Carolyn L. Karcher, Washington, D.C. Rodrigo Lazo, University of California, Irvine Maurice S. Lee, Boston University Robert S. Levine, University of Maryland, College Park Steven Mailloux, University of California, Irvine Dana D. Nelson, Vanderbilt University Samuel Otter, University of California, Berkeley John Stauffer, Harvard University Sterling Stuckey, University of California, Riverside Eric J. Sundquist, University of California, Los Angeles Elisa Tamarkin, University of California, Irvine Susan M. Ryan, University of Louisville David Van Leer, University of California, Davis Maurice Wallace, Duke University Robert K. Wallace, Northern Kentucky University Kenneth W. Warren, University of Chicago

Table of Contents

Introduction: Douglass and Melville in Relation
Literary and Cultural Geographies
Revolutionary Fictions and Activist Labor: Looking for Douglass and Melville Together	p. 19
Fugitive Justice: Douglass, Shaw, Melville	p. 39
Cheer and Gloom: Douglass and Melville on Slave Dance and Music	p. 69
Douglass, Melville, and the Moral Economies of American Authorship	p. 88
Volcanoes and Meteors: Douglass, Melville, and the Poetics of Insurrection	p. 110
Interracial Friendship and the Aesthetics of Freedom	p. 134
Political Theology in Douglass and Melville	p. 159
The Ethics of Impertinence: Douglass and Melville on England	p. 181
The Ends of Enchantment: Douglass, Melville, and U.S. Expansionism in the Americas	p. 207
Manhood and Sexuality
Fraternal Melancholies: Manhood and the Limits of Sympathy in Douglass and Melville	p. 233
Douglass's and Melville's "Alphabets of the Blind"	p. 257
A View from the Closet: Reconcilable Differences in Douglass and Melville	p. 279
Riveted to the Wall: Covetous Fathers, Devoted Sons, and the Patriarchal Pieties of Melville and Douglass	p. 300
Civil Wars
Fahrenheit 1861: Cross Patriotism in Melville and Douglass	p. 329
White Fratricide, Black Liberation: Melville, Douglass, and Civil War Memory	p. 349
Douglass, Melville, and the Lynching of Billy Budd	p. 369
Melville, Douglass, the Civil War, Pragmatism	p. 396
1855/1955: From Antislavery to Civil Rights	p. 416
Afterword	p. 436
A Douglass and Melville Chronology	p. 443
Notes on the Contributors	p. 453
Index	p. 457
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.